Lady Gaga was the most liked celebrity on Facebook during 2010, with more than 24.7 million people expressing approval for the Bad Romance singer.

Figures published by Facebook show that she beat Eminem to the title by around 800,000 likes.

Megan Fox, Vin Diesel and Rihanna completed the top five, with Barack Obama in sixth.

The identity of the most liked celebrity on Facebook will have come as little surprise to people who have followed Lady Gaga's meteoric rise to superstardom, as she has arguably harnessed the power of social networking sites as a promotional tool more effectively than any other star.

In July the Poker Face singer became the first living person to gain 10 million Facebook fans, narrowly beating President Obama to the landmark.

She also has the most followers on Twitter (7.5 million) and although she only has the 50th largest subscriber base on YouTube, Famecount.com names her as the world's top social network star.

Justin Bieber, who is the ninth most liked celebrity on Facebook and has the third largest Twitter following, is second on Famecount.com's list, ahead of President Obama.

Eminem, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry are among the other stars to make the top ten.

London, July 10 : Lady Gaga's manager Svengali Troy Carter insists that the singer's phenomenal success is the result of pure hard work.

Carter says his eccentric client has set an example of how hard work and hits can turn an expectant into a somebody, and he fears too many current acts break into the big time too quickly and fade out just as fast.

"She (Gaga) has put in the work. She has really put in the work. This was years in the making. Gaga has a work ethic. Gaga hustles. She understands all of that," the Daily Express quoted him as telling CelebrityAccess.com.

"One of the problems now is that we have a very lazy business. People are lazy. That girl gets out there. When we first started I didn''t know anything about pop music and she didn''t know anything about touring or anything like that.

"You can''t skip a step. People take the discovery process for granted. Fans want to feel like they have discovered you, and part of that discovery process is having the patience to start small," he added.

Lady Gaga is a man. Or at least, she poses as one in a new gender-bender fashion shoot. With her wardrobe of shocking outfits, she’s never been one to shy away from the outrageous.

But Lady Gaga seems to have managed to pull another fashion surprise out of her seemingly endless repertoire, by posing as a man.

A series of new photographs appear to show the controversial singer dressed in a series of suits and shirts, with her normally platinum hair gelled up in a dark quiff.

Gone are the usual extravagant costumes usually favoured by the star. In their place are sombre suits and conservative white shirts.

The photos were taken in London by renowned photographer Nick Knight and arranged by regular Gaga stylist Nicola Formichetti.They are set to appear in a men’s fashion editorial for the September issue of Vogue Hommes Japan.

Formichetti has also posted the images on her blog, but mysteriously lists the model's name as 'Jo Calderone.'

However, one of Gaga's biggest fans, blogger Perez Hilton appeared to acknowledge the images are of the star whom he jokingly refers to as 'my wife'.Lady Gaga is like, hotter than you. Image source: showstudio.com

Perez posted links to the pictures on his Twitter account. 'My husband, Jo Calderone! We're in love!' he wrote, before later adding: 'My man is so hot! Love him!'

Perhaps the pictures are Gaga's idea of poking fun at rumours that she is a hermaphrodite

'I love the rumour that I have a penis. I'm fascinated by it,' she said in a recent TV interview.

'In fact, it makes me love my fans even more that this rumour is in the world because 17,000 of them come to an arena every night and they don't care if I'm a man, a woman, a hermaphrodite, gay, straight, transgendered, or transsexual.

'They don't care. They are there for the music and the freedom.

'This has been the greatest accomplishment of my life - to get young people to throw away what society has taught them is wrong.'

Here is Lady Gaga biting the floor at Heathrow Airport, embarrassing herself in front of a few hundred travels while attempting to be the weirdest most outrageous looking person. Lady Gaga wore another one of her dumb outfits the other on her way to catch a flight from London to New York, and this time her shoes fought back in anger for making them look so stupid. She strutted around at first on her 12-inch boots but then, as was inevitable, she collapsed in a fleshy heap like a fat kid falling out of a tree.

The bad news is that she didn't do the fall from the top of some concrete stairs. She really needs to be careful where she steps, especially in those boots that were certainly not made for walking around in. Perhaps it’s time she think twice about some of the costumes she put on. The last thing any of her tween fans want is to find out her tours have been canceled because she lost her step. Anyway, how the hell this talentless twit is where she is is beyond me. The only thing I can come up with is tween girls are way too powerful. Katy Perry is another one but she is cool because she has huge breasts.

On today's ever more open Web, to whom do you want to be closer? Is there someone for whom you wish to express your affection, your desire, or your admiration, perhaps in the hope of getting some in return?

May I give you just two choices? President Obama or Lady Gaga.

Perhaps you feel I am limiting you too much. But this is an issue of such importance, one that will show just what the world sees when it looks in the mirror.

On the one hand, we have someone who is trying to rectify so many wrongs. Someone who wants you to know that, yes, anyone can. On the other, we have Barack Obama, who is also trying to do the same thing.

Here's how things stand right now. (Though these things never really stand. They are a constant dance.) Barack Obama, president of the United States, has--as I touch the reactive parts of my MacBook Pro--9,116,672 fans on Facebook. Famed exhibitionist singer of gym music, Lady Gaga, has 9,152,517.

Do you really love her more than anything in the world?(Credit: CC Domain Barnyard/Flickr)

Why is this significant? Well, no one living has 10 million fans on Facebook. Not Justin Bieber. Not George W. Bush. Which means that this race is vital and might well be decided over the coming hours and days.

Should you not have examined the numbers very closely, Lady Gaga is winning.

You will either decide that this is a fair reflection of those who participate in a superficial medium in which they post pictures of their vacations, their excesses with libations and their babies with bongs.

Or you will decide that, because you tend to believe everything Mark Zuckerberg says, Facebook needs to be seen as a deeply important social movement, one that will eclipse all other forms of searching, communicating, or being.

Look at the candidates. One wishes to make energy renewable and health care available. The other expends energy without end and would dearly love to excite you to the degree that health care would be unavoidable.

But please don't let me influence you.

Of course, I understand that you could balance your rear end on the spikes of a fence and declare your fandom for both of these world figures.

But wouldn't that be like not declaring just where your ultimate respect, your ultimate love, your ultimate sense of style and wit lie? And wouldn't that be like allowing others to make the decision for you? You know, as you have so often done on voting day.

So, please, hotfoot it to Facebook, hotfinger your feelings, and may the winner be a worthy one.